During Pride month, it is important to look at the NHL’s efforts to appeal to LGBTQ fans and recognize that there are issues that penetrate the entire culture of the sport. While teams being publicly accepting of LGBTQ fans is a step in the right direction of making fans feel welcome, true progress won’t happen until the locker room culture is changed.
In the sports industry, especially ice hockey, there are cultural barriers that make queer players at both the youth and professional levels feel unsafe and can keep them away from the sport altogether. The league has made efforts to make it appear that they are growing more accepting, but they have been criticized for doing the bare minimum to show their support for LGBT+ players and fans alike.
Ice hockey has the opportunity to pioneer cultural change in how the LGBT+ community relates itself to the sports industry. However, despite its front of the line position, the National Hockey League (NHL) still seemingly lacks sincerity and genuine influence over its players and platform.
The NHLs “Hockey is For Everyone” campaign has been a significant starting point in building acceptance in the sport, but it has been just that. A starting point that hasn’t influenced much.
Hockey Is For Everyone is an inclusionary program that occurs every February for the NHL. Its stated mission is to celebrate diversity and inclusion through various initiatives. The initiatives include activities throughout the month and focus on awareness in areas like the LGBT+ community, gender and ethnicity equality, socio-economic status, and those with disabilities.
The programming is in partnership with the You Can Play Project, a nonprofit organization committed to supporting the LGBT+ community and fighting homophobia in sports.
“Hockey is for Everyone” is a league-wide program that appoints “ambassadors” to take part in special pride night events or themed games. Each NHL team assigns a player to act as their ambassador, although what these ambassadors’ duties are is unclear. “These players have agreed to lead the way in their markets and be an advocate for underrepresented, marginalized, or disadvantaged communities; some will be featured in stories and public service announcements throughout the month.” the NHL website tells us.
Cavender Salvadori, a program manager with You Can Play, believes the league is doing actual work to support their initiatives and a movement toward real acceptance.
“Leagues are really invested in this work. They are doing their best to shift the discussion and culture to being completely inclusive.” Salvadori said in an email interview. “I think the community has come so far. You see every NHL club jumping on the opportunity to help support their local LGBTQ+. Not even just outward-facing stuff, but inward-facing donations to local organizations and helping with these orgs.”
The outward-facing stuff is what some fans have an issue with. Sometimes it seems like teams really don’t take the initiative seriously. For example, NHL teams have started adding “You Can Play” nights to their regular seasons. A single regular-season game where LGBT+ fans can celebrate and feel included. Local LGBT+ community members, anthem singers, and featured of hometown heroes are given a spotlight and a ceremonial puck drop.
But there are some NHL teams that still have issues with their “You Can Play” night, like the Blues scheduling theirs for a game that wasn’t in their own arena, making inclusion seem more like a ticket selling gimmick.
Pride Tape is another piece of the NHLs pride nights. The rainbow hockey tape is used by players, but only during warm-ups, and is available for fans to purchase along with a range of pride-themed merchandise. The sticks used by players are autographed and auctioned off with the proceeds going to different charities, but sales from pride tape and pride merchandise don’t support any charities.
A Lack of tangible support outside of themed nights, mixed with some teams making inclusivity less of a priority, and some professional players using their massive platforms to spread hateful language, can make the NHLs attempts at welcoming fans feel hollow.
“We see players in other leagues and levels of sport being out and proud, so part of what we need is young athletes who are LGBTQ+ athletes to be staying in the sport.” Salvadori continues, “I think working with fans is also crucial to creating a better environment for coming out.”
As much as these nights are meant to celebrate such communities and diversity, it often seems to be limited to on-ice job requirements. They can leave fans feeling like they are watching a marketing ploy and not a real effort to change the culture.
Ninety-one percent of fans that responded to social media polls believe that people in the LGBT+ community are not accepted. 100 percent of respondents think the NHL could be doing more to accept and promote inclusivity. Most fans believe that creating an inclusive culture should start not with public calls for acceptance, but actual acceptance from NHL players and coaches.
Actions from players like Brayden Holtby’s public participation in Pride events are a step in the right direction.
While Salvadori believes that making the NHLs fanbase more inclusive will lead to a more accepting hockey culture, others believe that the change has to come from inside the sport. One of the people who has been advocating change in the culture that is taught to hockey players is former OHL goaltender, Brock McGillis.
“I respect [the] visibility; a lot of time and effort goes into Hockey Is For Everyone nights,” McGillis said in an interview, “I would rather see that energy and time going into working with a coach. To me, it seems that it is having the parade before winning the cup.”
In 2016, McGillis came out and became the first openly gay professional hockey player and has been open about his experiences with the issues in hockey. According to his accounts, players are only allowed to talk about “macho” topics. Women, Partying, Sports. Anything else is considered a taboo and can lead to alienation. Players don’t feel safe speaking freely around their teammates.
McGillis also believes that making hockey culture more accepting starts by building an environment where other players feel safe coming out to their teammates and coaches. “Humanize Hockey issues.”
In an interview with The Hockey News, Mcgillis stated,
“We’re trying to put the pressure on one individual to come out – when we haven’t created a culture that’s inclusive and supportive and would enable them to come out. Reports are now that Marc Crawford was using homophobic language in the NHL. If your NHL coaches are physically and verbally abusing players and using racist, sexist and homophobic language, what do you think is happening at minor hockey levels? These are supposed to be educated, well-versed people who’ve gone through the system. If they’re doing this, and they’re the role models for coaches, what do you think is happening elsewhere? It’s even worse.”
As McGillis works through inclusivity programs, he asks players to open up and speak freely, to share something that they enjoy that are not sports-related. Some answers include writing poetry and Broadway musicals. Before he was blocked from skills training with younger players because of rumors of his sexuality, McGills had begun to change the attitudes of the players he worked with.
The state of hockey may appear to be inclusive since the words “Hockey Is For Everyone” are often uttered. But it is becoming more and more clear that the words don’t live up to the mission. Often the actions of players, coaches, fans, and the NHL itself do not support the mission and show that, right now, hockey is not for everyone.
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